Public Warning.
If you EVER, and I do mean EVER see a QR code for anything... not just some things, ANYTHING.
Treat it as a scam, do not scan it, they can easily be covered up with malicious redirects to fake sites to steal your financial details. Direct you to malware sites to try and infect your device.
Treat them all the same... as toxic, potential harmful to your identity and security.
Never trust them... EVER!!!
If you 100% must use one, do what you should be doing at any (ATM) cash machine, check for devices that have been installed by crooks. See if you can peel the code off, not just at the area around the code, but the whole sign... look for anything unusual and if you have any doubts... even if it's 1% doubt... DON'T USE IT
This isn't scaremongering, scammers and thieves are out there every day, placing fake QR codes on signs all over the place. No where is safe from them. The way to win is not to play. Don;t buy into the enshitification of everything, don;t be told that you can ONLY do it one specific way (legally they have to offer more than one way to pay for a service).
Please boost and spread the word.
#QRCodes
#ScamQRCodes
#Scammers
#Thieves
#IdentityTheft
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Jaden
in reply to Anomnomnomaly BSC SSC • • •Lysander il breve
in reply to Anomnomnomaly BSC SSC • • •That is fearmongering tho.
QR are links (sure, they are more complex and the simple act of scanning and decoding can be an attack vector, but so is receiving a message with some IM apps), and are no more malicious than links.
They are also a convenient way to encode information that the user should not have to type.
So yeah, everyone should use caution while operating a connected device, but hating QRs is scaremongering, and it'is stupid too.
Don't do that.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Lysander il breve • •@Lysander il breve @Anomnomnomaly DO however use a QR scanning app that will show you the link *before* opening it (and read it before opening the page), AFAIK there are still some that don't.
And of course “scan this QR to pay” has quite a different threat model than “scan this QR to download the full manual for this appliance”
like this
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Steve
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Steve • •Steve likes this.
Tom Walker
in reply to Anomnomnomaly BSC SSC • • •Andre
in reply to Tom Walker • • •@tomw I use Binary Eye (via F-Droid) to scan them.
If and only if they do not use link shorteners I use them.
@Anomnomnomaly
zarel
in reply to Andre • • •Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Tom Walker • •